September 9 2025 Agenda
12:00 to 13:00
Lunch and Networking Hour
Check out the various food vendors and connect with participants in a beautiful setting.
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Self-Organized Socials |
| Check out the list of self-organized Socials taking place at off-site (but close by) locations, ranging from meetups to numerous activities. | |
| A Sample of Today's Socials: |
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Circles and VillagesYou can find detailed Circle descriptions the end of this page. You can also organize your own self-organized Circle or Booth in the empty spaces (marked SOC TBD) by following these instructions. | ||
| Location | |||
| Circle 1 | From Seas to Skies: The New Frontiers of Internet Governance | ||
| Circle 2 | Whistleblowing and the Fight for Truth | Leading AI Detection: Deepfakes, Provenance & Protection | Who’s Writing Our Story? Documenting the why as well as the how |
| Circle 3 | Inside a Cross-Border Investigation on Surveillance and Censorship Tech (part 1) | Inside a Cross-Border Investigation on Surveillance and Censorship Tech (part 2) | Mapping the Global Spyware Landscape: Perspectives, Gaps & Possibilities |
| Circle 4 | |||
| Circle 5 | |||
| Circle 6 | |||
| Location | |||
| Luminate Village | Effective Altruism: How can civil society and philanthropy respond? | Effective Altruism: How can civil society and philanthropy respond? | Effective Altruism: How can civil society and philanthropy respond? |
| Calyx Village | Secure Messaging in 2025 and What Comes Next? | Sketch It Out: Unblock Your Brain and Spark Creative Flow | |
| Circumvention Tech Village | |||
| APC Village | |||
| Open Measurement Village | |||
| Digital Rights Sustainability Village | Brainstorm on Alternative Funding Models (Part 1) | Numun Fund Session Part 1 | A Listening Session on the Digital Rights Funding Collapse |
| Latin America Cafe | |||
| SWANA Cafe | |||
| Asia Cafe | |||
| Queer Rights Village | |||
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BoothsEach booth has a number, which can be found on top, center above a booth's "window". You can find detailed Booths & Villages descriptions at the bottom of this page. | ||||
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| Booth 4a | |||||
| Booth 4b | |||||
| Booth 5 | |||||
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| Booth 19 | |||||
| Booth 21 | |||||
| Booth 22 | |||||
| Booth 79 | |||||
| Booth 80 | |||||
| Booth 81 | |||||
| Booth 82 | |||||
| Booth 83a | |||||
| Booth 83b | |||||
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Global Gathering After Hours |
| Karaoke!!! Our favorite pass time! |
Partners
Circle Descriptions
| A Listening Session on the Digital Rights Funding Collapse | This circle is a space to share stories, identify emerging patterns, and begin mapping the impact of the funding collapse on our communities and networks. Whether you’ve been directly affected, are supporting impacted groups, or are simply trying to make sense of what’s happening—come share your story.
Over the past year, the digital rights ecosystem has been shaken by an unprecedented wave of funding cuts. Organizations across the globe—especially those led by and serving marginalized communities—have been forced to downsize, pause programs, or shut down entirely. This isn’t just a budget issue; it's a structural crisis with long-term implications for our collective safety, resilience, and ability to defend digital freedoms. |
| Brainstorm on Alternative Funding Models (Part 2) | This is part 2 of a three part circle series. As the digital rights field faces a historic funding crisis, many of us are asking: What now? We all are looking for alternative funding, but how do we organize for that? How do we prepare our organization to become more agile on fundraising? What options of alternative funding exist—from reimagined grantmaking models to untapped donors, ethical partnerships, and community-powered support. Together, we’ll surface bold ideas, share examples from adjacent movements, and identify who might be ready to fund this work—even if they haven’t yet. This session is about expanding our collective imagination and beginning to chart a path toward financial resilience rooted in solidarity, innovation, and justice. |
| Effective Altruism: How can civil society and philanthropy respond? | Building collective knowledge about effective altruism, and the impact the movement is having on AI policy, among philanthropic organisations and civil society. Learning about the findings from previous work and explore how to take these learnings forward to explore strategies for responding to this movement’s incursion into the fields in which we work. |
| From Seas to Skies: The New Frontiers of Internet Governance | Beyond traditional areas of network and telecommunications governance, new tensions are increasingly reshaping what internet governance means: who is actually governing the new technologies that increasingly facilitate our internet connections? As companies like Google, Amazon, AWS, and Starlink expand their control over submarine cables, cloud infrastructure, and satellite networks, the longstanding approach to governing the internet stack through a set of well-known bodies like ICANN and the IETF is becoming more fragmented and contested. This circle will explore both the traditional venues of Internet governance and what is at stake there for the IF community as well as map how governance is shifting from traditional internet governance and technical standards bodies to new venues, and what civil society can do to prevent the consolidation of power over the internet. |
| Inside a Cross-Border Investigation on Surveillance and Censorship Tech (part 1) | This is part 1 of a two part series. Join Amnesty Tech and InterSec Lab for a look at their groundbreaking collaborative investigation into surveillance and censorship technologies, which will be launched during the Global Gathering. Learn about the findings on how powerful digital tools are being traded and deployed across borders to suppress civic space. Together, we’ll explore:
+ The methodologies used to analyze and safeguard highly sensitive leaked data. + The secure platforms and workflows enabling cross-organizational collaboration. + Key investigative findings and their implications for the global digital rights community. Engage directly with investigators, learn replicable practices, and discuss the broader ecosystem enabling rights-abusing technologies to flourish. It’s also one of the first chances to respond collectively to the investigation’s revelations, as it launches in real time at the Gathering. |
| Inside a Cross-Border Investigation on Surveillance and Censorship Tech (part 2) | This is part 2 of a two part series. Join Amnesty Tech and InterSec Lab for a look at their groundbreaking collaborative investigation into surveillance and censorship technologies, which will be launched during the Global Gathering. Learn about the findings on how powerful digital tools are being traded and deployed across borders to suppress civic space. Together, we’ll explore:
+ The methodologies used to analyze and safeguard highly sensitive leaked data. + The secure platforms and workflows enabling cross-organizational collaboration. + Key investigative findings and their implications for the global digital rights community. Engage directly with investigators, learn replicable practices, and discuss the broader ecosystem enabling rights-abusing technologies to flourish. It’s also one of the first chances to respond collectively to the investigation’s revelations, as it launches in real time at the Gathering. |
| Leading AI Detection: Deepfakes, Provenance & Protection | Deepfakes are rapidly evolving—and so are the threats they pose. In this session, we’ll unpack how generative AI is being used to create increasingly realistic audiovisual content, and explore two key strategies for mitigating harm: provenance and detection. We’ll also spotlight emerging threats to those on the frontlines of media and human rights and invite participants into an interactive conversation to share experiences and strategies for collective defense. |
| Mapping the Global Spyware Landscape: Perspectives, Gaps & Possibilities | Led by partners of the Spyware Accountability Initiative, this interactive Circle invites participants to collectively map the diverse range of work, perspectives, and lived experiences related to spyware and surveillance technologies around the world. Whether you’re working on investigations, victim support, policy reform, tool development, or community education—this space is for you. We'll explore the following together:
+ What does spyware work look like across regions and sectors? + Where are the critical gaps in accountability, protection, and response? + How can we better connect efforts, reduce duplication, and amplify underrepresented voices? |
| Numun Fund Session Part 1 | |
| Secure Messaging in 2025 and What Comes Next? | Join the Phoenix R&D team for a conversation on what secure messaging looks like in 2025—and where it's headed next. We'll explore current trends, emerging gaps, and how evolving privacy technologies and federated protocols are reshaping the landscape. This session invites input from developers, advocates, and end users alike to help define the future of secure, user-centered communication. Come share your insights and help us imagine what comes next. |
| Sketch It Out: Unblock Your Brain and Spark Creative Flow | Feeling stuck? Overwhelmed? In this guided circle, we’ll use simple sketching and visual thinking to unlock creativity, ease mental clutter, and see familiar problems in a new light. No drawing skills needed—just a willingness to explore with pen and paper. Through a series of playful prompts and reflections, you’ll learn how visual expression can:
+ Calm a busy or anxious mind Help externalize and reframe challenges + Tap into intuitive, nonlinear thinking + Make space for clarity, insight, and even joy Come as you are. Leave with a few lines on a page and a lighter mind |
| Whistleblowing and the Fight for Truth | What compels someone to risk everything to expose the truth? In this powerful session, Libby Liu leads an open conversation on the role of whistleblowers in defending democracy, human rights, and the public good. We’ll explore the personal and political stakes of whistleblowing, the evolving risks in the digital age, and how communities can build stronger ecosystems of support for truth-tellers. Come ready to listen, reflect, and contribute to a collective understanding of courage, accountability, and protection. |
| Who’s Writing Our Story? Documenting the why as well as the how | Who decides what gets remembered, and why? Join us for an interactive session exploring how we document our organizations, our movements, and the moments that shape our lives. We’ll dive into the politics of memory, the power of storytelling, and the practical tools we use to capture and preserve our work. From everyday digital records to community archives, we’ll reflect on how to safeguard our stories and facts, without losing critical context along the way. |
Booth & Village Descriptions
| Village | ||
